Editorial: Stop bobcat trapping by fur trade in California

Every reasonable person hates laws that change the rules from one jurisdiction to the next. Perfectly fine cruising speeds in one town become the basis of a speeding ticket just across the town line.

Imagine then how bewildered a wild animal protected within a national park feels when trappers lurk at the invisible borders.

That's what is happening to California's bobcats, These magnificent, small, wild felines that - unlike mountain lions - pose no danger to humans have been falling victim to commercial trappers when they wander out of Joshua Tree National Park in the Southern California desert. And they need protection from stumbling into the clutches of commercial killers.

It is against the law to take bobcats within the park itself. The animals have been thriving there in recent years, a time in which the value of their pelts has skyrocketed overseas. Just since 2009, the price of a California bobcat pelt has jumped from about $78 to around $700 for buyers in China, Russia and Greece who prize the beautiful spotted fur.

Bobcats are not an endangered species. But neither have their numbers, once way down from overhunting, proliferated in the state in the manner of deer and coyotes in recent years. Actually, nobody knows how many bobcats there are in California. There hasn't been an effort to make a count in several decades. It's only clear that the wily creatures aren't common. Hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts can spend many years in the wilds and never see one, and count themselves lucky when they do.

Responding to an outcry from Joshua Tree neighbors over a new group of trappers putting out their deadly boxes around the borders of the national park, Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, has introduced AB 1213, which would ban trapping bobcats for commercial purposes in California.

It's the right thing to do.

About 1,800 California bobcats were legally killed by hunters and trappers during the last licensing year - about 1,500 of them by trappers.

Under the proposed bill, sport hunting of bobcats would still be legal in the state. This is somewhat archaic because no one is going after a wildcat for its meat. Still, it is an agreeable compromise to wildlife conservation groups and this editorial board.

California should not sit still while any of its precious resources are depleted - in this case gorgeous wildlife slaughtered - to benefit foreign fashionistas and a few opportunistic trappers.

Those animals aren't just cute, they are alive and well and playing an integral part in our ecosytem. Bobcats eat up all kinds of rodents as part of their daily diet. And let's not discount the draw that having such wild creatures extant plays in drawing visitors, both Californians and tourists from around the world, to our national parks and other scenic areas.

Many Californians work to protect seemingly exotic wild animals in Africa and Asia. We should do the same for those that run free in our own countryside.